Nationwide May 1 job fair to offer 100,000 jobs

MANILA, Philippines—More than 100,000 jobs are up for grabs in various job fairs this coming Labor Day across the country, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said Monday.

Baldoz said around 1,000 companies and recruitment agencies would be offering both local and foreign employment opportunities at the different Jobs and Livelihood Fairs on May 1.

“Including the Job and Livelihood Fairs in the regions, we are expecting some 1,000 companies/employers/agencies to offer 100,000 local and overseas employment opportunities,” Baldoz said.

“We have already announced the schedule and venues of the regional job and livelihood fairs and our preparation is in full swing,” she added.

In Metro Manila, Baldoz said the job fair would be held at the Rizal Park, where 200 companies and recruiters would be offering 30,000 jobs.

Labor Undersecretary Hans Cacdac said they expect 50,000 applicants to flock to the Rizal Park job fair. The labor department said it was expecting more applicants this year due to the number of overseas Filipino workers displaced by the conflict in Libya and the Middle East.

“As we expect thousands of jobseekers, graduates, and displaced OFWs to (visit) the designated venues across the country…we are continuously exerting all efforts and exhausting all means to provide a vast array of productive and matched job opportunities,” Baldoz said.

Bureau of Local Employment Director Maria Criselda Sy said that the number of applicants hired on the spot took 10 percent of jobs offered at the livelihood fairs in 2009. Last year, this increased to 13 percent.

“So this year, we hope that the trend would continue. Hopefully 15 percent (would be hire don the spot),” Sy said.

Baldoz urged job seekers to pre-register for the job fairs by logging on at www.phil-job.net. She said free Phil-Jobnet digital cars containing an applicant’s curriculum vitae would be distributed by the labor department’s Public employments Services Offices to applicants in Metro manila who pre-register.

The jobs available in Metro Manila include managers, cashiers, data encoders, dining and kitchen personnel, copywriters, fashion designers, graphic artists, safety engineers, computer technicians, and heavy equipment mechanics and automotive electricians, Baldoz said.

Information technology staff and supervisors and call center agents were also in demand, she said.

In other regions, jobs in agriculture, fishing, mining, manufacturing, construction, and hotel and restaurant industries will also be offered, Baldoz added.

The labor chief said President Aquino also plans to hold a breakfast forum with labor leaders in Malacañang on May 1 to discuss “sectoral issues and concerns.” –Philip Tubeza, Philippine Daily Inquirer